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Chelsea4 - 1Spartak Moscow

Nicolas Anelka got Chelsea up and running with a fabulous opener at the Bridge

By Sam Lyon

Chelsea maintained their 100% record in this season's Champions League with a clinical win over Spartak Moscow that secured their progress from Group F.

An even first half was notable mostly for an awful miss by Chelsea's Alex.

But the hosts impressed in the second half, sparked by Nicolas Anelka's fine rising finish before Didier Drogba earned and fired home a penalty.

Branislav Ivanovic then headed a third and slammed home a fourth, either side of Nikita Bazhenov's late consolation.

As so often with Chelsea this season, it was a victory that in the end could barely have been more comfortable - and yet the hosts never really got out of third gear.

It extends the Blues' unbeaten run at home in the Champions League group stages to 22 matches - a run built on clinical finishing and the foundations of a superb defence, marshalled from between the sticks by Petr Cech - who had gone 956 minutes without conceding at Stamford Bridge before Bazhenov's late strike.

Spartak certainly played their part in a keenly-contested opening half, though.

Despite losing the reverse fixture a fortnight ago, the Russian outfit served enough warning in the second half of that game to suggest they could threaten the Blues at the Bridge - and so it proved in a first 45 minutes that was arguably shaded by the team from Moscow.

With Dimitri Kombarov and Aiden McGeady providing plenty of width and fit-again skipper Alex pulling the strings in midfield, Spartak more than held their own.

Former Celtic winger McGeady curled the match's first effort of note narrowly wide after a decent break by Evgeni Makeev, while Alex forced a smart stop on the dive from Cech with a swerving effort from range that the Chelsea keeper did well to beat away.

But it was the visitors' drive and energy more than their incision in front of goal that will have impressed their vocal away support - and for a long time Chelsea failed to fire as a result.

With John Terry on the bench, Michael Essien rested and Frank Lampard still injured, a lack of spark betrayed a sense that Chelsea were expecting - rather than battling for - things to happen, despite the prospect of early qualification to the knockout stages.

Not that the hosts were completely toothless. Anelka curled inches wide on the back of an incisive run, Drogba forced a low save from the angle and only Alex will know how he failed to tap in from all of a yard after Ivanovic's near-post flick from a corner.

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Still, more purpose, intent and ambition was needed if Chelsea were going to break the Russians' resolve - and it took less than five minutes of the second half for Anelka to provide it.

The Frenchman exchanged passes on the run with Salomon Kalou on the edge of the Spartak area and then squeezed home a fabulous rising finish between the post and keeper Andriy Dykan from a tight angle to open the scoring.

That goal enabled Chelsea to do what they have done so well all season - patiently build, wait for the gaps, and then strike with clinical precision.

It was 2-0 soon after the hour mark, Makeev chopping Drogba down inside the area and the Ivorian picking himself up to slot in the resulting spot-kick.

And only moments later Ivanovic put the game to bed, getting himself free to nod into the corner from Drogba's precise free-kick.

Kalou twice went close to a fourth, firing over when well placed in the area and then forcing a smart save with a low drive.

But it was Spartak, against the run of play, that grabbed the game's fourth in the end - Bazhenov, looking suspiciously offside, sliding home from Welliton's cross on the break.

The final word, however, belonged - fittingly - to Chelsea, Ivanovic slamming in his third goal in two matches after a spot of pin-ball inside the visitors' box in stoppage time.

Marseille's 7-0 rout of MSK Zilina in the night's other Group F game means top spot is not yet guaranteed for the west Londoners - but with Zilina the next opponents for Carlo Ancelotti's men, entering the knockout stages as group winners for the sixth time in the last eight campaigns looks odds-on for the Premier League leaders.

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